Have been re-reading the classic New Mutant comics lately. Love them, but something that always made me wonder is; if Sam worked in the mines, and later for Donald Pierce in order to feed his family (because Mama Guthrie was too proud to rely on welfare) then shouldn't they have starved once Sam became a student at Xavier's?

While there are mentions of Josh doing work around the house/farm and taking over playing "dad" to his brothers and sisters he was still shown to attend school whenever Sam (or Page later) visited home and I have the feeling Josh would have acted WAY more bitter towards Sam if he had been forced into the mines after his brother left.

Much, much later we have Josh earning some money with his band and (I think) Elisabeth working as a waitress, but still that shouldn't be enough money to feed and cloth 8-9 people and keep the farm.

Did Xavier and Magneto pay Sam a salary while he attended Xavier's? This of course brings up the question how the Guthries survived Xavier's destruction in the late 80s or the whole time Sam was with Cable.

Did Mama Guthrie cave in and started living on welfare checks? Had Xavier set up a bank account for them? Am I over-thinking this way too much?

IIRC, Xavier gave Cannonball a scholarship to go to his school and he used that scholarship to send to his family so they can live off of it.